The fact that it was projected to hit the East Coast the weekend before Halloween was a coincidence. It was because Sandy wasn't an ordinary storm. Sure, it was going to bring all of the damage of a hurricane, but it also had the possibility of a snowstorm following it.

Dire warnings to the contrary, Port Deposit, usually hit very hard by storms like Sandy, escaped the worst of it, as did its neighbors along the lower Susquehanna River.

"We didn't get anything other then rain," Melissa Manley said Wednesday as she walked with her two children from the Port Deposit library to her home on Main Street. "We didn't even lose power."

"We were really fortunate," Harley Tina Lee, who also lives on Main Street, said. "New York and New Jersey got the worst."

"Today was the first day I ventured back into the world," Lee said. She spent most of the storm in the safety of her home with plenty of bottled water, flashlights and blankets.

Taking precautions, Port Deposit's Town Council and Perryville's Board of Town Commissioners postponed Halloween festivities in their respective towns until Friday.

Port Deposit will hold its official party from 5:30 to 8 p.m. while Perryville will hold trick-or-treating from 6 to 8 p.m.

Across the river in Havre de Grace, residents were also happy that Sandy's damage to the area was minimal.

"The inner downtown area was relatively uneventful," Thom Elmore, a Perryman resident who works and spends his free time in Havre de Grace, said. "Downtown, the lights flickered on and off, but they never really lost [power.]"

"I was expecting it to be worse," Ricky Sluder, who works part-time at the Rodgers House Tavern on North Washington Street, said. "I'm glad we didn't get the snow they were calling for."

Sluder, who lives on Robinhood Road in Havre de Grace, said he had electricity until Wednesday morning, losing power after the storm had passed.

"The only thing that p-----d me off was that we had power all through the storm," Sluder said. " I woke up this morning, and the power was out."

Sluder was glad the storm left the area unscathed, but he also hoped there weren't going to be any negative aftereffects.